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Audiobook edition · 14 h 25 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when prejudice claims the authority of science and builds a philosophy around it?
In Sex & Character, Otto Weininger tries to turn a theory of sex into a moral philosophy. His starting claim is that every person mixes male and female elements. From there, he constructs two imagined pure types, M and W, and uses them to judge identity, genius, and ethical life.
First published in 1903, this work grows out of Weininger's doctoral studies in Vienna. Its arguments are openly sexist and antisemitic, and its claims about women and Jews are false and hateful. Read it as a document of its age: a case study in how prejudice takes the shape of theory.
What you’ll discover
- The scheme beneath the claims Trace how Weininger moves from mixed sexual traits to rigid ideals of man and woman.
- Identity reduced to types Examine the gap between his account of real people and his imagined categories.
- Genius as a moral ideal Explore why Weininger places genius and ethics within what he calls the male principle.
- Prejudice presented as philosophy Confront the sexist and antisemitic claims that make this a troubling historical document.
- Vienna and its ideas Encounter a thinker whose work offers a case study in the history of discredited ideas.
Who will love it
For readers curious about Vienna around 1900, debates on gender and identity, and the way philosophers build arguments. It also suits those who study how prejudice borrows the voice of science.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- No one is wholly male or wholly female
- A mathematical law is said to govern attraction
- Women who seek freedom are called masculine
- Women are said to think in vague feelings
- Genius is defined as total, timeless consciousness
- Logic and ethics are said to need a self
- Women are sorted into mother and prostitute
- Love is said to be projection, not desire
- The book ends by denying women any soul
- The chapter on Jews and the book's afterlife
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Sexe et caractère
by Otto Weininger · 1903
A young Viennese philosopher builds a theory of sex and genius that scholars now treat as a case study in prejudice.
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In short
What leads a gifted student to write a book that explains every difference between men and women with one principle, and why did serious readers take it up? Sex and Character is a treatise by Otto Weininger, a young Viennese philosopher who published it in 1903 and died the same year.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
No one is wholly male or wholly female
Weininger opens by attacking thinking in two sharp boxes. Anatomists cannot find a bone, an organ or a measurement that sorts every person into man or woman. Some women are narrow hipped and deep voiced, and some men are beardless and gentle.
From embryology he draws a rule. Every embryo starts sexually neutral, and traces of the other sex always remain. So no one is purely one sex, only a mixture in different proportions. He builds an ideal man called M and an ideal woman called W, and writes real people as formulas, such as three quarters M and one quarter W.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 8 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1903
- Language
- français
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Weininger, Otto. Sex & Character. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/sex-character.
Weininger, O. (2026). Sex & character. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sex-character (Original work published 1903)
Weininger, Otto. Sex & Character. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sex-character.
@book{weininger2026sex,
author = {Weininger, Otto},
title = {Sex \& Character},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sex-character},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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What is Sex and Character about?
It is a 1903 treatise that tries to explain the differences between men and women by one principle. It moves from biology to psychology, genius, ethics, love and religion, and ends with sweeping claims about women and Jews.
What is a henid in Weininger's book?
A henid is his word for a thought at its very first stage, before the thing perceived and the feeling about it separate. He uses it to claim that women think in vague feelings while men think in clear ideas.
Is Sex and Character scientific?
It borrows the language of biology and psychology, but its evidence is mostly the author's own observations and examples. Later science does not support its main claims, and historians treat it as prejudice dressed as science.
The author
Otto Weininger
1880–1903 · Austrian philosopher and writer
Otto Weininger was an Austrian philosopher and writer. He was born in Vienna in 1880 and died there in 1903. He studied at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1902. His book Sex and Character was published in 1903. He died by suicide at the age of 23.
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